LIVE: SWEDEN DECIDES 2014

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – Good evening to all of you oikotimers who will be tonight with our live report of the Grand Final of Melodifestivalen 2014. Ten songs are in the run for the next Swedish representative at Eurovision Song Contest 2014. Lets wish all the best to all the contestants. You can watch the show live here. The show has started! First all the finalists are beeing preseted in a intro video. Right on the start we have Charlotte Nielsen as opening act. Is there a need to say anything about her? I also want to say that Friends Arena is a full house!

Again all the finalists were presented, but now on stage in the arena. Charlotte is back on stage singing Wonderful Copenhagen. And finally our hosts Nour El-Refai and Anders Jansson are greating us. They are also saying how the televoting will work. And they just said that the show can start. First up is Anton Ewald.

THE PARTICIPANTS

Anton Ewald – Natural
Styling is not changed so Anton is wearing his mirror jacket. Performace is just the same as in semifinal. Vocally he sounds totally ok, but the thing I don’t like about MF is the prerecorded backvocals. There is no doubt that the teenage girls will vote for him.

Ellen Benediktson – Songbird
The producers have decided that Ellen Benediktson should perform second. Every year we have at least one song that qualifies surprisingly strict to the finals. This year it was definitely Songbird. Her hair looks way better tonight as its curlier. Also she looked more confident then in the semifinal. I think that the jury will push it without a doubt.

Alcazar – Blame It On the Disco
They say that number 3 has a charm. They are back a better than ever. They are the disco defenders. ALCAZAR. Sure that vocally they are not the best, but you have to admit that they have the best stage performance. Crowd in the arena just love them. Will this be their night?

Oscar Zia – Yes We Can
Another treat for teenage girls is coming up on stage. Oscar Zia is forth performance of the night.I bet that he got the idea of the screens of Blue’s performance from Dusseldorf. Compared to Anton’s song, this seems a bit better. He sounds really good, but I got the impression after these four songs that I am watching a Disney movies and not a national final.

Linus Svenning – “Bröder
Even though Linus was one of the favorites in the semifinal, he had to fight for his spot tonight in Andra Chansen. Broder is a very interesting song. A ballad in Swedish. I would really like to see Sweden perform in their own language soon. Linus is in dark outfit. I would also like to understand Swedish as the music is just perfect. First song tonight that really deserves to win.

Helena Paparizou – “Survivor
And the moment that almost every ESC fan was waiting since 2006. Helena Paparizou in the final of Melodifestivalen as a contestant. Just like Linus, Helena also came from Andra Chansen. She is wearing black tights and gold-black jacket. This is the second song that really deserves to win. Can you also imagine her performing with five backing vocals this May in Copenhagen? I sure can.

YOHIO – To The End
Last years public favorite YOHIO is performing seventh tonight. He is not so blond like last year, but he song is also not so good like HH. Are you also one of those people who thinks that To the end is copy/paste of Urlik’s Tell the world I’m here? I know I am. The best part of his performance is when he throws fire from his glove. As much as he should have won last year, tonight he shouldn’t.

Sanna Nielsen – Undo
If I am right, Sanna Nielsen entered Melodifestivalen the most times of all tonight’s competitors. Will this finally be her year? People in Friends Arena seems to like it very much. Her styling is not changed, but I think that she sounds a bit better then in the semifinal. Lights and crystals are making just perfect ambient. I believe that this year we will have very interesting voting and that we won’t know the winner until last minute.

Panetoz – Efter solsken
Panetoz are on stage. When I look their performance I make myself think, do we need another Haba Haba performance on Eurovision stage? They don’t sound bad. But this is just not a song for Eurovision. A lot of smoke, glitter and fireworks for Panetoz. Lets just leave it like that.

Ace Wilder – Busy Doin’ Nothin
The biggest round of applause comes for the last performance of night – Ace Wilder. Look her styling I realise that economic crisis is still going on. Why? Because she is wearing the same T-Shirt with number 7 from the semifinal. Crowd is clapping all the time, but that didn’t change my impression that I am again watching a Disney movie.

40 years ago ABBA won for Sweden so I hope that you didn’t think that interval act will go without a tribute to the famous band. Charlotte Perelli, Malena Ernman and Robin performed ABBA hits.